The Mystery of Francis Bacon Part 11

At a very early period in the history of printing, the custom was introduced of placing on t.i.tle-pages, at the heads and ends of the chapters, emblematical designs. In English printed books these are seldom to be found until the latter half of the 16th century.

An investigation of the books of the period reveals the fact that the same blocks were used by different printers. Articles have been written on the migration of printer's blocks, but, so far, no explanation has been offered as to any object other than decoration for which these blocks were used.

Among other designs in use between 1576 and 1640 are a number of variants of a device in which a light A and a dark A form the most conspicuous points. Camden, in his "Remaines Concerning Britaine," 1614, commences a chapter on "Impresses," at the head of which the device is found, thus:--"An Imprese (as the Italians call it) is a device in picture with his Motto, or Word, borne by n.o.ble and learned personages, to notifie some particular conceit of their owne: as Emblemes (that we may omitte other differences) doe propound some general instructions to all." Then follow a number of examples, and amongst them this:--

"Variete and vicissitude of humane things he seemed to shew which parted his shield, Per Pale, Argent & Sables and counter-changeably writte in the Argent, Ater and in the Sables Albus."

But even if the light A and dark A are used in the design of the head-piece to represent Albus and Ater it does not afford any satisfactory explanation as to why they are so used.

In MDCXVI. was published "Les Emblemes Moraulx et Militaires du Sieur Jacob De Bruck Angermundt Nouvellement mis en Lumiere A Strasbourg, Par Jacob de Heyden Graveur."

In Emblem No. 18, now reproduced, the light A and the dark A will be found in the branch of the tree which the man is about to cut off.

(Figure VI.)[44]

Another Emblem does not contain the light A and dark A, but the bark of the trunk and branches of the tree on the design exhibit a strong contrast between the dark and light, which feature is represented in most of the t.i.tle-pages of books in which the device is found. (Figure VII.)

Mr. Charles T. Jacob, Chiswick Press, London, who is the author of "Books and Printing" (London, 1902), and several works on typography, referring to an article on the migration of woodblocks, said:--

It is a well-known fact to Bibliographers that the same blocks were sometimes used by different printers in two places quite far apart, and at various intervals during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. That the same blocks were employed is apparent from a comparison of technical defects of impressions taken at different places, and at two periods. There was no method of duplication in existence until stereotyping was first invented in 1725; even then the details were somewhat crude, and the process being new, it met with much opposition and was practically not adopted until the early part of the nineteenth century. Electrotyping, which is the ideal method of reproducing woodblocks, was not introduced until 1836 or thereabouts. Of course, it was quite possible to re-engrave the same design, but absolute fidelity could not be relied on by these means, even if executed by the same hand.

The earliest date which appears on a book in which the head-piece, containing the device of the light A and dark A is found, is 1563. The book is "De Furtivis Literarum Notis Vulgo. De Ziferis," Ioan. Baptista Porta Neapolitano Auth.o.r.e. c.u.m Privilegio Neapoli, apud Ioa. Mariam Scotum. MDLXIII. (Figure VIII.)

It is only used once--over the dedication Ioanni Soto Philippi Regis.

There is no other head-piece in the book. John Baptist Porta was, with the exception of Trithemius, whom he quotes, the first writer on cyphers. At the time at which he wrote cypher-writing was studied in every Court in Europe. It is significant that this emblematic device is used in the earliest period in which head-pieces were adopted, in a book which is descriptive and is in fact a text-book of the art of concealment. This has, however, now been proved to be a falsely dated book.

The first edition of this work was published in Naples in 1563 by Ioa.

Marius Scotus, but this does not contain the A A design. In 1591 the book was published in London by John Wolfe; this reprint was dedicated to Henry Percy, Earl of Northumberland. After the edition had been printed off, the t.i.tle-page was altered to correspond with the 1563 Naples publication. The dedication was taken out, and a reprint of the original dedication was subst.i.tuted, and over this was placed the A A head-piece; then an edition was struck off, and, until to-day, it has been sold and re-sold as the first edition of Baptista Porta's work. It is difficult to offer any explanation as to why this fraud was committed.

The first occasion upon which this device was used appears to be in a book so rare that no copy of it can be found, either in the British Museum or the Bodleian Library. Unfortunately, in the copy belonging to the writer, the t.i.tle-page and the two first pages are missing. The work is called "Hebraic.u.m Alphabethum Jo. Bovlaese." It is a Hebrew Grammar, with proof-sheets added. It is interleaved with sheets of English-made paper, containing Bacon's handwriting. Bound up with it is another Hebrew Grammar, similarly interleaved, called "Sive compendium, quintacunque Ratione fieri potuit amplessimum, Totius linguae," published in Paris in 1566. The book ends with the sentence: "Ex collegio Montis--Acuti 20 Decembris 1576"; then follow two pages in Hebrew, with the Latin translation over it, headed "Decem Praecepta decalogi Exod."

Over this is the design containing the light A and the dark A, and the squirrel and rabbits. (Figure IX.) One thing is certain, that the copy now referred to was in the possession of Bacon, and that the interleaved sheets of paper contain his handwriting, in which have been added page by page the equivalents of the Hebrew in Greek, Chaldaeic, Syriac and Arabic.

In 1577 Christophor Plantin published an edition of Andrea Alciat's "Emblemata." On page 104 is Emblem No. 45, "In dies meliora." This has been re-designed for the 1577 edition. It contains at the back the pillars of Hercules, with a scroll around bearing the motto: "Plus oltre." These pillars stand on some arches, immediately in front of which is a mound or pyramid, two sides of which are seen. On one is to be found the light A and on the other the dark A. The design was appropriated by Whitney, and appears on page 53 in the 1586 edition of his Emblems. From this time forth, A A devices are to be found in numbers of books published in England, and on some published on the Continent. Amongst the former are the first editions of "Venus and Adonis," "Lucrece," the "Sonnets," the quarto editions of Shakespeare's plays, the folio edition (1623) of his works, and the first quarto and octavo editions (1612) of the Authorised Version of the Bible.

There are fourteen distinct designs, in all of which, varying widely in other respects, the light A and the dark A const.i.tute the outstanding figure. The use of the two letters so shaded must have had a special significance. In nearly every case it will be observed that the letter A is so drawn as to make the letter C on the inside. Was its significance of general knowledge amongst printers and readers, or was it an earmarking device used by one person, or by a Society?

A possible interpretation of the use of the light and dark shading, is that the book in which it is used contains more than is revealed; that is to say, the overt and the concealed.

A copy of "aesopiphrygis vita et fabellae c.u.m latina interpretatione"

exists, date 1517. The book is annotated by Bacon. On one side is the Greek text and on the opposite page the Latin translation. On pages 102 and 103 are two initial letters printed from blocks of the letter A.

These are coloured so that the one on the left hand side is a light A, and that on the opposite page a dark A.

There are other designs which are used apparently as part of a scheme.

The identical block (Figure X.) which was used at the top of the t.i.tle page of "Venus and Adonis" (1593) and "Lucrece" (1594) did service on the t.i.tle page of the Genealogies in the quarto edition of the Authorised Version of the Bible, 1612. This design was, so far as can be traced, only used twice in the intervening nineteen years--on "An Apologie of the Earl of Ess.e.x to Master Anthony Bacon," penned by himself in 1598, and printed by Richard Bradocke in 1603, and in 1607, on the "World of Wonders," printed by Richard Field. It was of this book that Caldecott, the bibliophile and Shakespearean scholar, wrote: "The phraseology of Shakespeare is better ill.u.s.trated in this work than in any other book existing." The design which is found on the t.i.tle page of the "Sonnets of Shakespeare," 1609, is found also in the first edition of Napier's "Mirifici Logarithmorum," 1611, but printed from a different block. The design with archers shooting at the base of the central figure is to be found in a large number of the folio editions of the period. Amongst these are the Authorised Version of the Bible, 1611, the "Novum Organum," 1620, and the 1623 edition of Shakespeare's works.

There are other designs which are usually found accompanying the light A and dark A and the other devices before referred to.

These designs were first brought into use from 1576 and practically cease to appear about 1626. Afterwards they are seldom seen except in books bearing Bacon's name, and eventually they lapse. The last use of an A A device is over the life of the author in the second volume of an edition of Bacon's Essays edited by Dr. William w.i.l.l.ymott, published by Henry Parson in 1720. After an interval of about 60 years a new design is made, which is not one of those employed by Bacon.

By means of these devices a certain number of books may be identified as forming a cla.s.s by themselves.

There is another feature connected with them which is of special interest. One man appears to have contributed to all the books thus marked--either the dedication, the preface,[45] or the lines "To the Reader"; in some cases all three. It may be urged in opposition to this view that in those days there was a form in which dedications and prefaces were written, and that this was more or less followed by many writers, but this contention will not stand investigation. There are tricks of phrasing and other peculiarities which enable certain literary productions to be identified as the work of one man. Some of the finest Elizabethan literature is to be found in the prefaces and dedications in these books.

The theory now put forth is that Francis Bacon was directing the production of a great quant.i.ty of the Elizabethan literature, and in every book in the production of which he was interested, he caused to be inserted one of these devices. He kept the blocks in his own custody; he sent them out to a printer when a book was approved by him for printing.

On the completion of the work, the printer returned the blocks to Bacon so that they could be sent elsewhere by him as occasion required.

The most elaborate of the AA designs is Figure XII., and the writer has only found it in one volume. It is "Le Historie della Citta Di Fiorenza," by M. Jacopo, published in Lyons by Theobald Ancelin in 1582.

"Exact was his correspondence abroad and at home, constant his Letters, frequent his Visits, great his obligations," states the contemporary biographer, speaking of Francis Bacon. It is difficult to arrive at the exact meaning of these words. There is little correspondence with those abroad remaining, no record of visits, no particulars of the great obligations into which he entered. In the dedication of the 1631 edition of the "Histoire Naturelle" to Monseigneur de Chasteauneuf, the author speaking of Bacon writes:--"Le Chancelier, qu'on a fait venir tant de fois en France, n'a point encore quitte l'Angleterre avec tant de pa.s.sion de nous decouvrir ses merveilles que depuis qu'il a sceu le rang dont on avoit reconnu vos vertus."

These frequent visits to France are unrecorded elsewhere, but here is definite testimony that they were made.

There are good grounds for believing that Bacon was throughout his life, until their deaths, in constant communication with Christophor Plantin (1514-1589), Aldus Manutius, Henry Stephen (1528-1598), and also with Robert Stephens the third (1563-1640). All these men were not only printers, but brilliant scholars and writers. If search be made, it is quite possible that correspondence or other evidence of their friendship may come to light. Be that as it may, there were undoubtedly a number of books published on the continent between 1576 and 1630 which in the sparta upon them bear testimony to Bacon's a.s.sociation with their publication.

The following are instances of where the several designs which are reproduced may be found. They however occur in many other volumes.

Figure IX.--"The Arte of English Poesie," 1589.

" XIII.--"Orlando Furioso," 1607.

" XIV.--Spencer's "Fairie Queen."

" XV.--"Florentine History translation," 1595, and 1636 edition of Barclay's "Argenis."

" XI.--"Sonnets."

" XVI.--Simon Pateriche's translation of "Discourse against Machiavel."

" XVII.--Lodge's translation of "Seneca," 1614.

" XVIII.--Shakespeare Folio, 1623.

" XIX.--"Daemonologie," 1603.

" XX.--Alciat's "Emblems," published in Paris, 1584.

FOOTNOTES:

[44] Plates Nos. VI. to XXI. will be found after the Appendix.

[45] In the "Advancement of Learning" Bacon says that Demosthenes went so far in regard to the great force that the entrance and access into a cause had to make a good impression that he kept in readiness a stock of prefaces.

CHAPTER XIX.

BACON AND EMBLEMATA.

In "Shakespeare and the Emblem Writers" the Rev. Henry Green endeavours to show the similarities of thought and expression between the great poet and the authors of Emblemata, but the line of enquiry which he there opened does not appear to have been followed by subsequent writers. To-day the Emblemata literature is a _terra incognita_ except to a very few students, and yet it is full of interest, romance, and mystery. Emblem literature may be said to have had its origin with Andrea Alciat, the celebrated Italian jurisconsult, who was famous for his great knowledge and power of mind. In 1522 he published at Milan an "Emblematum Libellus," or Little Book of Emblems. Green says: "It established, if it did not introduce, a new style of emblem literature, the cla.s.sical in the place of the simply grotesque and humorous, or of the heraldic and mythic." The first edition now known to exist was published at Augsburg in 1531, a small octavo containing eighty-eight pages with ninety-seven emblems, and as many woodcuts. It was from time to time augmented, and pa.s.sed through many editions. For some years the Emblemata appears to have been produced chiefly by Italians, with a few Frenchmen. Until the last half of the sixteenth century the output of books of this character was not large. Thenceforth for the next hundred years the creation of emblems became a popular form of literary exercise. The Italians continued to be prolific, but Dutch, French, and German scholars were but little behind them. There were a few Englishmen and Spaniards who also practised the art.

In 1905 was published a book called "Letters from the Dead to the Dead,"

by Oliver Lector. In it attention is drawn to the remarkable features of some of the books on emblems printed during Bacon's life, and to the evidence that he was in some manner connected with the publication of many of these volumes. The author claims this to be especially the case with the "Emblemata Moralia et Bellica," 1615, of Jacob de Bruck, of Angermundt, and the "Emblemata Ethic Politica" of J. Bornitius.

The emblem pictures for the most part appear to be picture puzzles. In the "Critique upon the Mythology of the Ancients" Bacon says:--

"It may pa.s.s for a farther indication of a concealed and secret meaning, that some of these fables are so absurd and idle in their narration as to proclaim and shew an allegory afar off. A fable that carries probability with it may be supposed invented for pleasure, or in imitation of history; but, those that would never be conceived or related in this way, must surely have a different use."